Times-Dispatch lays off 59

Despite what he called the "funereal" name of the Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed March 21 by the Virginia Press Association, Media General chair J. Stewart Bryan vows the company will "stick around."PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Media General announced that it would lay off 59 employees at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in the departments of "production, circulation, marketing, business, advertising, editorial, news, operations, facilities, prepress design services and targeted solutions." The Times-Dispatch will also eliminate 31 unfilled positions.

According to the the Thursday, April 2 release from Media General, the T-D currently employs 602 full- and part-time workers, down from 772 this time last year.

In a same-day article entitled "Hatchet falls deep at Times-Dispatch," Style Weekly reported that such stars as editorial cartoonist Gary Brookins, former Daily Progress scribe Rex Bowman, and Charlottesville's own one-man bureau, Carlos Santos, are among the employment casualties.

9 comments

# the political tactic of making gradual changes over time so that nobody notices or those that do notice do not raise much of a protest
# Death by a Thousand Cuts (essay) "And now he had found it; an ingenious adaptation of Ling Chi or slow slicing. A form of torture causing death by a thousand cuts - skillfully applied to keep the victim on the edge of death; alive just long enough to extort the final drop of blood money."

Bob April 2nd, 2009 | 6:35pm

I prefer not.

Movie Lover April 2nd, 2009 | 6:57pm

At least no one will be subjected to the gawdawful film writing of their laid off "movie critic" who panned approximately 90 percent of all movies he saw during a wretched 19-year tenure.

Then again, "mediocrity" is the defining word for Media General.

That is a dead husk of a company looking for a hole to crawl into and lay down forever

Watch the language, folks, or watch your comment get deleted. Just a friendly warning.

Sincerely,
Lindsay Barnes

dave April 2nd, 2009 | 8:52pm

I dont know why you didnt much care for the TD movie critic "Movie Lover", but dude was good. Neiman was an excellent writer unafraid to pan at will. I didnt agree with half of his articles, but am truly sad to see him go. Not sure what puppy of yours he kicked along the way, but me thinks you overly harsh.

MG no mo' April 3rd, 2009 | 10:19am

I gotta agree with Movie Lover on this one. The TD critic was a joke, a pretentious hack who devoted his space to an unsuccessful effort at convincing the world how clever he thought himself to be.

He panned The Departed for gawd's sake. Scorsese's picture went on to win the best picture Oscar.

Unintentionally amusing is the operative description for the former td movie writer.

Let's be honest: neither the RTD nor the Daily Progress have been quality papers for years. It's tragic to see the near-death of the newspaper industry. But, like the record industry, most of these papers have themselves to blame for failing to get ahead of the digital curve.

I look forward to the day (sometime in 2010 maybe?) the Hook is either a daily or has enough reporters to make the digital edition the equivalent of a true daily.

Buffalo girl April 3rd, 2009 | 12:01pm

I'll second that. Just look at the difference of the reporting the DP and the Hook did on the wading pool at McIntire as one example. The Hook investigated and the DP printed the City press release. Maybe we should just get the City and County to put their Press releases on their home pages and them we wouldn't need the DP at all.